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Term limits might help if done right

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The April 7
Dispatch article “Support for term limits vanishing” appeared to be one-sided and biased
toward Ohio elected officials.

The article noted that the 1992 term-limit legislation is flawed because it never imposed real
term limits to be applied to Ohio elected officials. The 1992 legislation merely allows Ohio
elected officials to spend two terms as a senator, then two terms as a representative and continue
to repeat this process.

This is merely “political leapfrog” that allows legislators to make politics a lifetime career.
Ask any Ohio voter, and I bet this is not what he intended for elected officials. They should get
their limited time in Ohio politics and then get out and find a real job, like the rest of us.

Former Ohio Senate President Tom Niehaus basically stated that voters are too stupid to be
trusted to vote for their elected officials. Niehaus proposes amending term limits, doubling House
members’ stay in office to four years and allowing senators to serve six years instead of four
years.

What is wrong with Niehaus’ proposal? Go back to 1796 and George Washington’s Farewell Address,
which discussed the dangers of political parties to the government and country as a whole.

Basically, politicians promote their interest over the welfare of Americans.

Washington warned that political parties must be restrained in a popularly elected government
because they distract the government from its duties, create unfounded jealousies among groups and
regions, raise false alarms among the people, promote riots and insurrection and provide foreign
nations and interests access to the government so they can impose their will upon the country (that
last one sounds like a warning against lobbyists).

Why do Americans continue to re-elect the same representatives when these officials merely vote
for their own interests, instead of those of the citizens?

The April 7
Dispatch article gave us a good example of such self-interest. Consider former Senate
Chief of Staff Matt Schuler, who is now the executive director of the Ohio Casino Control
Commission.

Readers should call their Ohio elected officials demanding real term limits that restrict Ohio
representatives to two two-year terms and Ohio senators to one four-year term.